Sorry to tell you this but Brexit did not "happen" 20 months ago.You can't continually blame Brexit which happened over 20 months ago as the prime cause.
The UK officially left the EU on 31 December 2020 (9 months ago) and even then employers did not have to check their status under the EU Settlement Scheme until 30 June 2021.
Brexit still has not happened for the folks of NI in its entirety, and that s***-show is going to run easily until 2023.
I fully accept I know only a little here and you clearly have more experience than me, and I never said that Brexit was the only cause, but I find it very hard to believe that the loss of over 20,000 EU drivers is not contributing to the problem.The upturn after the pandemic shut down is responsible for a lot problem where drivers have moved into other jobs and industries when a lot of shops and suppliers were closed during the lockdowns
Your comment shows how little you know about the transport industry, there are a lot of things that money can't and won't fix and I suspect the UK driver shortage is one of them
This is a key point and applies to the above. Many of those unemployed (or soon to be) simply do not have the skills/qualifications to do a lot of the in-demand jobs as they stand.I think that’s when things will get interesting. Will those 900k fill the gap when they come off furlough? I suspect not. Can’t see them filling all the HGV places, production line spaces, harvesting spaces, service industry spaces. Trades and building will also be interesting. Previous governments push to get all and sundry qualified in meaningless degrees rather than providing decent apprenticeships has left a big gap in home grown trades skills.
I see in the news tonight that the government has decided to shorten HGV driver testing process by combining some tests, but even assuming they get enough applicants it will still take 2 years to fill the shortages.
This sad story is not over yet